Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, has fixed June 3 for hearing in a suit filed by Nafiu-Bala Gombe, seeking to stop David Mark and others from parading themselves as leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The hearing notices have since been issued and served on the lawyers to the parties in the suit.
One of the lawyers confirmed the development.
The case, filed by the aggrieved former national deputy chairman of the ADC, was earlier before Justice Emeka Nwite.
The matter was, however, reassigned to Justice Lifu, following Justice Nwite’s recent elevation to the Court of Appeal.
The National Judicial Council (NJC), at its 111th meeting on May 13, had recommended the appointment of 12 new justices of the Court of Appeal, including Justice Nwite, to President Bola Tinubu for approval.
In the suit, Mr Gombe seeks an order restraining Mr Mark, the embattled national chairman of the ADC, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the national secretary, and members of their interim National Working Committee (NWC) from parading themselves as the party’s leaders.
He had argued that the emergence of Messrs Mark, Aregbesola and other NWC members as the party’s leaders breached the provisions of the ADC’s constitution and the Electoral Act.
Mr Gombe sued the ADC, Mr Mark, Mr Aregbesola, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Ralph Nwosu as the first to fifth defendants, respectively, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025.
Mr Nwosu was the former ADC national chairman who stepped down for Mr Mark’s leadership of the party.
On April 14, Justice Nwite adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely) following Mr Gombe’s request to await the Supreme Court’s judgment in the appeal filed by Mr Mark.
However, on April 30, the Supreme Court set aside the order of the Court of Appeal in Abuja directing the maintenance of status quo ante bellum in the ADC leadership dispute, which INEC acted on by derecognising the Mark-led leadership of the party.
The apex court ordered the parties to return to the FHC for an expeditious hearing of the case filed by Mr Gombe, an aggrieved chieftain of the party.
Meanwhile, INEC complied with the Supreme Court judgement by reversing the removal of the Mark-led leadership from the commission’s official portal.
When the case came up before Justice Nwite on May 8, following the Supreme Court order, Luka Haruna, SAN, appearing for Mr Gombe, sought the transfer of the case to another judge.
Although no reason was given, Mr Haruna said a letter had been written to the CJ to that effect.
Lawyers for the ADC, Messrs Mark, Aregbesola and Nwosu disagreed with the application.
The ADC’s counsel, Rilwan Okpanachi; Suleiman Usman, SAN, who appeared for Mr Mark; Mohammed Sheriff, who represented Aregbesola; P. I. Oyewole, counsel for Chief Ralph Nwosu, and other lawyers in the case vehemently opposed Mr Gombe’s request for the case transfer.
The lawyers, who said Mr Gombe’s letter had not been served on them, described Mr Haruna’s application as “an ambush.”
They also considered the request an attempt to frustrate the Appeal Court’s order for an accelerated hearing, which the Supreme Court sustained.
The defence lawyers, who described Mr Gombe’s application as ‘forum shopping,’ said the only good thing the application for the transfer of the matter had achieved was confirming the court’s integrity.
They said this was so because nothing tangible had happened since the last adjournment.
The lawyers said they maintained absolute confidence in the integrity, impartiality and sound judicial discretion of Justice Nwite’s court.
“The so-called letter in a normal view is a fundamental breach of procedure, amounting in law to an illegality and not a mere irregularity,” they argued.
They said they would have insisted that the court proceed with the hearing, but for a certified true copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court judgement, which was yet to be obtained, so the trial court could be properly guided by it.
They therefore sought an indefinite adjournment to enable them to furnish the judge with the CTC of the judgement, and Justice Nwite adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely), pending the time the CTC is obtained.
A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, emerged as the ADC presidential candidate on May 27 after defeating two other aspirants, including Rotimi Amaechi, a former Minister of Transportation, at the party’s national convention.
Also, Dumebi Kachikwu emerged as the presidential candidate for the 2027 general election at a national convention held by another ADC faction.
The party’s 2023 presidential candidate was adopted by factional members as the sole candidate on May 24.
(NAN
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